


Love Hurts

by Rkarena59



Category: Frizzies Franco Baldwin and Elizabeth Webber General Hospital
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 10:46:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20704697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rkarena59/pseuds/Rkarena59
Summary: Franco tells Elizabeth about Drew and Jason and gets a shock





	Love Hurts

He stood there and looked at Elizabeth. She couldn’t have hurt him worse if she had stabbed him in the gut. Once again, she had put Jason first. He backed away from her, unable to even say anything. He turned on his heel and headed back towards his therapy room. Grabbing some spray paint cans he began angrily spraying the new sheet of canvas he had recently put up. “All this time you’ve just been fooling yourself. You wanted to be her source of strength and instead, you’ve just been second best. Saint Jason wins out again. God. Why!” he threw the cans at the wall with all his might and slumped against the couch in defeat. “Face it, Franco. There’s something in you that scares her and she just doesn’t have the heart to admit it to you.“ he stared at the wall. His graffiti signature was emblazoned across the canvas interspersed with angry colors bisecting the numbers like raw open wounds. He hugged himself tightly and his shoulders drooped. He would give anything in that moment to go back to that unfeeling Franco that had come to Port Charles so many years before.

Standing in the doorway, Liz gazed at the canvas. She had seen Franco’s face when she told him he should tell Jason about Andrew. HIs eyes were the windows to his soul in that moment and she realized how badly she had hurt him. He had come clean and told her about Jason’s dead twin and instead of helping Franco, she had decided that she couldn’t lie to Jason again When he turned and walked away, she had followed him, calling his name but it was like he didn’t hear her. Arriving at the room she had just stopped mesmerized. As he worked with a frenzied passion. She heard him talking and winced at his words. The pain in those words was evident. She couldn’t blame him for that assumption about her. She had picked Jason several times and had used Jake as the reason for doing it. Now she watched him sink back against the couch. On the floor, she saw one of the pictures Franco had drawn of him and Drew. The drawings were the keys to Franco’s emotions. She had called them an obsession but now she realized that they were a source of comfort for him as he tried to make sense of his past. She walked toward him, coming up just behind him. “You don’t scare me,” she whispered.

Franco spun around and moved away. “Liar. You need to go Elizabeth. I once promised you I would never intentionally hurt you, but I’m not so sure this is the time to test that.” He put some more space between them as he walked and picked up the spray cans on the floor. “You should get back to work. I’ve got patients coming in soon.”

“Franco, please. I love you. Not Jason.”

Franco met her eyes, “Really? Let me ask you something. You want me to tell Jason about a brother he never knew and never cared for because it’s the right thing to do. Why? He didn’t live with him, or play with him or love him. I did, and then for years, I thought he was a figment of my imagination. Do you have any idea how I felt when Betsy told me the truth?”

Her eyes filled with tears. “I’m beginning to.”

Franco’s eyes swam with unshed tears. “He was my brother.” His voice choked up.”Now I’m just supposed to forget that. We weren’t related by blood so I have no reason to feel upset. Instead, I have to do the right thing and tell Jason, a man who despises me, that my brother was actually his twin. I can’t do it. Elizabeth, I’m trying to find my footing again. This has thrown my whole life asunder. The one thing that was holding me together was knowing that you loved me and only me. But Jason still pulls your heartstrings. Admit it.” he blinked and the tears fell. he angrily wiped them away. He turned away from her. He knew she would deny it and he didn’t need any more lies just then.

Liz straightened her shoulders and approached him. She reached and touched his shoulders tentatively. unsure if he would turn and lash out, but she wasn’t a coward and she had to prove to him that she really wasn’t afraid of him. When he remained rigidly still, she breathed a sigh of relief and turned him to once again face her. :”I can’t admit it because it isn’t true. The only one pulling my heartstrings is you.” He refused to look at her and she lifted a hand and gently caressed his jaw. 

“Franco, I’m sorry. I know you don’t believe me right now but it’s true. I hurt you and that was the last thing I meant to do. I told you I was worried you were obsessing about Drew. I didn’t take into account that you might have good reason to do that right now. When you came back from New York, you were terrified your dark soul would return and break us apart. I saw your drawings and was afraid for you. Every time I think you’re in a good place, that we are in a good place, I see you drift away a little bit. Don’t shut me out, I want to help you in everything like you helped me all those months. You internalize your feelings and keep them close to the vest. I’m frustrated because I’m only getting glimpses of what’s really troubling you, but one thing has become very clear, it’s this belief of yours that Jason still has a hold on me.” When she had touched his jaw he had closed his eyes. “Franco, open your eyes and look at me.”

Franco had been shocked when Elizabeth touched him. He hadn’t expected her to reach out like that and it unnerved him. His anger tended to make people give him space, not the other way around. When she had turned him back around he had focused on anything else but her beautiful face. He wasn’t ready to give up the anger and hurt he was feeling, and then she caressed his jaw and he closed his eyes as the anger and pain flowed away while he listened to her. No matter what else was happening. Franco still loved Elizabeth with all his heart and soul. He just wanted Elizabeth to love him the same way. Whether she believed it or not, he wasn’t wrong about her connection to Jason. He opened his eyes at her request and looked down into hers.

“I am not in love with Jason. He’s Jake’s father and you know that,.nothing else. The reason I wanted to tell him about Drew was that I made a promise not to lie just to keep things my way and I still believe he needs to know. But it’s my guilt talking, not my heart. My heart is hurting right now, and all I want to do is make it stop. It’s hurting because you’re hurting and I did it. Please forgive me. I love having you in my life, knowing you’ll be home with me every night. Knowing that you love me for me. My blinders came off a long time ago where you’re concerned. Let me help you, please let me see all of you even the parts you’re afraid of.”

Franco searched her eyes looking for any sign Elizabeth was just trying to placate him but he didn’t see it. Truth be told he didn’t want to see it. What he did see was love. He caught her hand in his. Just holding it to his heart. “Are you sure?”

“I am but what really matters is if you believe me.” she waited, hoping she had gotten through to him. It was a make or break moment. She didn’t want to lose him but she knew if he doubted her love for him, it would shatter what they had already put together. His eyes were haunted and his heart was pounding beneath their hands. She wished she could read his mind. Her heart filled with happiness when his kissed her fingers and drew her close into his arms. Touching foreheads he whispered. “I believe you.”++


End file.
